Feature Articles

Over the past decade, just as the invention of the silicon microchip revolutionized electronics, crystalline minerals called perovskites have helped researchers discover new, innovative electronics and energy technologies. Now, at Idaho National Laboratory, researchers are using perovskites for different energy applications: converting fuel into electricity or producing valuable chemicals such as ethylene, hydrogen or ammonia.

People rely on electronics, and that reliance will only grow in the coming years. As the newest gadgets prompt us to dispose of our old ones, we unwittingly become contributors to a major conundrum for our world – electronic litter. The need to properly recycle electronics is not new, but it has become more of a concern due to the industry’s rapid growth. The Idaho National Laboratory-developed technology known as E-RECOV is working to combat this problem.

Recently, researchers at Spero Renewables, a California-based green technology company, tapped into Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL) Technical Assistance Program to work with researchers at the Biomass Feedstocks National User Facility. The program provides U.S.-based small businesses with access to INL experts and unique capabilities at no cost. Spero is using environmentally friendly practices to manufacture renewable chemicals from plant-based materials.

Idaho National Laboratory researchers are studying the rigid and resilient properties of dental enamel in hopes of using them to impact the energy and national security sectors.

INL researchers working with the innovative Temporal Analysis of Products (TAP) reactor system are trying to improve understanding of chemical reactions by studying the role of catalysts, which are components that can be added to a mixture of chemicals to alter the reaction process.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – DARPA – has enlisted Idaho National Laboratory to help create a mechanical system that soldiers can use to separate their garbage and turn it into everything they need to survive: food and water for their bodies, fuel and lubricants for their vehicles.

Machinists at INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) have successfully fabricated a full-scale, electrically heated prototype for the Department of Energy’s Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) project in just nine months.

Electric vehicles are expected to be essential to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As more of them roll off production lines and onto roads, the world will need two things: more lithium, the key element in the batteries that power them, and carbon-free power to charge those batteries. A recent study conducted by INL researchers suggests that lithium from U.S. geothermal plants could meet up to 8% of the world’s demand.

By bombarding a natural vanadium target with high-energy photons, INL researchers created a pure, low-cost form of Scandium-47 which can be used to treat prostate, lung, intestinal and pancreatic cancers, among others.

In remote regions of Alaska, many communities aren’t connected to a regional electrical grid, forcing them to rely on importing diesel fuel to meet their energy needs. But the harsh elements can lead to interruptions in their fuel supply, and diesel prices can be excessively high. To address this issue, a collaborative project between INL researchers, the Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP), and XENDEE Corporation is looking at the feasibility of enabling these microgrids to integrate power from tidal or wave energy sources along with other renewables and energy storage.